Giant LeBron James banner in Cleveland comes down

"The Lakers now, in the way they've approached these trade talks with San Antonio, they're kind of showing their hand that they may be willing to wait until next summer in free agency", Wojnarowski said.

To further highlight the disparity between East and West, of the 75 all-NBA spots that have been available for players to fill over the past three years, 56 of them have been filled by Western Conference players now that James has gone West. "They didn't play flawless - mental mistakes, defensive mistakes".

What both Rondo and Stephenson do bring to the table is defensive tenacity, as well as playoff experience, a valuable commodity given the youthfulness of the Lakers and James's annual designs on trips to the NBA Finals.

LaVar Ball is about the get familiar with LeBron James.

However his expectations may have been tempered early in the postseason.

Additionally, Rondo is regarded as one of the smartest players in the National Basketball Association.

In order of their ability to handle the pressure and produce, Nance Jr. and Hill were the only two to show any real consistency.

In the end, few players did well enough to keep James' confidence though.

Although there were suggestions of installing a Browns-related image after James's move was announced, another team in town got a little salty about being overlooked.

However, waiting also comes with its risks as there's never a guarantee that Leonard will retain his desire to join the Lakers after a year.